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The New Mutants First Trailer Dropped and I’m Kinda Confused

Hello interweb, Nate here. So I have barely touched this blog in a very long time. Unfortunately, college has been eating away at my time more than high school ever did. When I do have free time I’m doing other activities instead of writing. Kind of a shame too. I’ve been really wanting to get my review of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 out, just haven’t found the time to start the damn thing. However, the first New Mutants trailer dropped last night and being the major X-Men fan I am I wanted to get my thoughts out there. Usually in trailer reviews I take a trailer and analyze it bit by bit. Not this time. I would, but I just don’t have the time to dedicate to a formal Review and Explain segment. So you’re stuck with this little post.

With that said, what are my thoughts on the recent New Mutants trailer? Well to sum up my thoughts, I’m confused yet intrigued. I’ve made it no secret that I hate the X-Men films. I kind of forgive the first X-Men movie because it was a product of it’s time so it’s kinda hard for me to really work up the energy to hate it. But X-Men: Days of Future’s Past (which I’m pretty sure I actually never reviewed) was forgettable as all hell, X-Men: Apocalypse was insulting on several levels, both Wolverine movies prior to Logan were forgettable, and the only two X-Men movies that are good are Logan and Deadpool. Deadpool I honestly don’t personally even consider an X-Men film since Deadpool actually has very little to do with the X-Men both in the film and in the comics. Regardless, the X-Men universe has been disappointing and I’ve been hoping for the day where the X-Men will finally integrate into the MCU for decent adaptations.

Side note: I have not seen the X-Men spin off shows such as Legion or Gifted and have no idea how good they are.

So when I initially heard that Fox was making an adaptation of The New Mutants I had my hopes and my criticisms. Before I discuss the trailer, let’s go over the concept of a New Mutants movie without Bryan Singer f*cking everything up. My hopes? Well first of all, Magik finally gets a cinematic introduction and I’ve always loved her. Let’s hope that they can recast Kitty Pryde and get these two as the BFFs we see in the comics! Doubt that’ll ever happen, but a nerd can dream can’t he? Second, well, Byan Singer isn’t the director so this may or may not actually look at the source material. Third and finally, depending on how much they rely on the already established continuity (if you can call it that) than maybe this could be a decent flick. My criticisms? Well, this film is still made by Fox. That’s only one criticism but really isn’t that a big one at this point? Although maybe this’ll be the X-Men equivalent to Wonder Woman. Ya know, the trailers look decent enough but the studios behind the film still makes it seem unlikely to be good.

Alright, let’s discuss the trailers itself. Now let me actually start by saying that I’ve never read the New Mutants before. I’m very familiar with all these characters from other X-Men books, but not the New Mutants specifically. Therefore, I’m not quite sure how much of this is inspired from that comic. Was the comic more of a mutant horror story than an actual superhero flick? Cause that’s actually kind of an interesting concept, just also rather random and out of nowhere. So based on the trailers, I’ve gathered that these are a group of teenage mutants whose been brought to some sort of asylum due to their lack of control over their newfound powers. Also, the asylum is haunted? I’m sorry, I’m still confused over the horror aspect of this film. Is horror a genre that’s been making a come back and I just never noticed? First IT and now this? Again, this could work but it’s just a very out of left field approach to the X-Men.

If the New Mutants is a movie about a group of teenage mutants who are just discovering their dangerous abilities for the first time but without any X-Men to help them. Cause it seems like they’re not in this movie, which I appreciate seeing as it means the universe doesn’t revolve around them but have a lot of things going on outside that team. Now the way I would’ve handled this personally was take the mutant prejudice that exists within the X-Men universe and look at how a group of teenagers reacts to it. Kinda like how Spider-man: Homecoming was basically the MCU from a teenager’s perspective? Hell, the whole gay allegory that the X-Men represents would kind of make more sense in a high school setting. I mean, gay high schoolers struggling to live in a world that don’t except them versus a gay superhero team that struggles to live in a world that don’t accept them. And yeah yeah, I know I know it’s an allegory and isn’t meant to be taken literal, but still.

So that’s basically my thoughts. So here’s my question, how do you guys feel about the horror aspect to this trailer? Are you excited about it? Do you think it’s just a really odd choice? Maybe a tad random? Also, are there anyone in my audience who’ve actually read the New Mutants? What do you think?